On a downtown block in West Palm Beach, Florida, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati takes one of coastal real estate’s familiar hierarchies as the starting point for a 25-story housing tower: who gets the view. MiMar, developed with Jeff Greene under the states’s Live Local Act, brings affordable and market-rate apartments into the same building above the historic Datura Fire Station. Affordable housing makes up 40 percent of its residences, while the architecture works to give every home the same basic privilege, a view toward the Atlantic.
The tower achieves this through a zig-zag facade that repeatedly angles its residential modules toward the water. Each fold turns another apartment east, while alternating solid and open sections increase separation between neighboring balconies. CRA cites Miami’s Art Deco architecture as a reference, especially its relationship with coastal orientation, though the connection appears through geometry instead of applied ornament. From a distance, the building reads as a stack of shallow turns, each one directed toward the horizon.
visualizations © CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
THE FACADE WORKS HARDER AS THE TOWER RISES
The architects at CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati look to South Florida’s sun and prevailing winds to shape the MiMar Tower. This way, the folds take on an environmental role alongside their effect on the view. Balconies gradually deepen toward the upper floors, where exposure becomes stronger, and their overhangs shade the residences below. The face of the tower grows more protective with height and each change in depth is used to adjust the relationship between the interior and the coast.
MiMar also keeps the division between affordable and market-rate housing out of its circulation plan. Residents use the same entrance and elevators, with shared amenities gathered on a landscaped podium terrace. The ocean orientation continues across the building as well, so the architectural feature most easily turned into a premium upgrade becomes part of every apartment.
CRA angles MiMar’s residential modules toward the Atlantic so every home receives a sea view
DATURA FIRE STATION STAYS AT STREET LEVEL
At the base, the preserved frontage of the historic Datura Fire Station remains visible along the West Palm Beach streetscape. Retail spaces face Datura Street, while the residential entrance opens along South Dixie Highway. The new tower rises directly behind and above the older civic structure, keeping the fire station present within a block that will otherwise change considerably in scale.
Behind the facade, CRA proposes a hybrid mass timber and concrete structural system suited to Florida’s developing framework for tall timber construction. Parts of the building can be fabricated off site under controlled conditions before assembly on the downtown site, reducing construction time and disruption around the block. The system also lowers the embodied carbon associated with the tower compared with a conventional all-concrete approach.
the zig-zag facade separates neighboring balconies while opening each residence toward the coast
balconies become deeper toward the upper floors to provide additional shade
a landscaped podium terrace gathers the building’s shared amenities
affordable and market-rate residents share the same entrance and elevators
project info:
name: Mi Mar
architect: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati | @carlorattiassociati
location: West Palm Beach, Florida
developer: Jeff Greene
CRA partner-in-charge: Andrea Cassi
project manager: Rui Guan
CRA team: Carlo Ratti, Andrea Cassi, Rui Guan, Anchalinad Anuwatnontaket, Jelena Krco
visualizations: © CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
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